Wish Me Well
by BadBoysAreBest
Summary: Faith & Fred show up in Mystic Falls to investigate an apocalypse. How's a vicious ex-Ripper like Stefan gonna handle a Slayer? Meanwhile Damon finds himself in a position that's too good to be true. Mostly DAMON/ELENA & bits of STEFAN/FAITH
1. You reek of indecision

Angel The Series x The Vampires Diaries.

**Fandom Notes:** (AU) This is set after ATS season four, but before BTVS season seven. Let's get fictionally wacky and pretend Faith had another mission to do before joining the gang in Sunnydale. In the TVD timeline, this is set in the _future_, Elena is a college student and is no longer dating Stefan.

**Warnings:** Sexual references, usual vampire slayer violence, strong language, character death.

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><p><strong>CHAPTER 1: <em>You reek of indecision.<em>**

**R**olling through the south, Fred can hardly look out the window without feeling like she has to hurl. "I mean, I don't wanna sound, mind taking it easy on the wheel for a bit?" Fred asks awkwardly while gripping the bottom of her seat.

"Look, the way Willow talks it up, I should be in Sunnydale - that's where I'm needed. The only reason why we're even having this conversation is because Angel asked me to protect you." Faith replies letting out an exhale of annoyance, yet she complies and lowers her speed. "So I'm thinking the faster we get this little homework assignment done, the better. Cool?"

"This 'homework assignment' might be an apocalypse." Fred corrects her, looking slightly offended. She doesn't appreciate the slayer's flippancy one bit.

"The keyword being might." She replies shaking her head. "Whatever. Just don't think I'm gonna let you hold me back once we get there."

"Hold you back?" Fred scoffs under her breath; what kind of person does the slayer take her for? This trip has been a nightmare so far and it's only just started. On the plane ride over, Faith had one too many complimentary Gin & Tonics and passed out cold, so they didn't get a chance to talk much on the flight across the nation. Now they're in a far too big SUV rental, speeding at a little over 100 on the highway to Mystic Falls. Fred has no idea what's gonna happen if a cop pulls them over, but then again, Faith isn't the type that bothers with following the law. Fred swallows thickly thinking about Faith's recent stint in the big house. She should be more careful with a wanted fugitive. She's got a track record for being a reckless. Fred groans realizing they'll have to find something to agree on or they won't be much of a team. And they need to be a team for this to work.

"Are we there yet?" Faith chimes in, knowing the big nerd is playing with her phone.

"Uh…" Fred replies reading her GPS and then something absolutely delicious catches her eyes on the screen.

"Tacos!"

"Come again?"

"What? Don't tell me you have a vendetta against tacos?"

"I could eat a horse." Faith answers, shrugging.

"Well, it's just I, there's a place on the way." She replies excited. "Supposed to be the best place around in the state."

"Can't say I ever pegged Virginia as a taco state, but what the hell, alright." She retorts with a lazy smirk.

"What's the exit?"

Over a wide variety of tacos, the girls bond a little as Faith finds out about Fred's ludicrous history.

"Am I the only one that hasn't gotten sucked into a hell dimension?" Faith jokes.

"I didn't mean to go there."

"Of course you didn't." Faith laughs sarcastically. "You done with that?"

Fred slowly looks down at her last unfinished taco. "I'm getting there…" She answers because there's no way she's giving up the only the decent food she's had in a long, long time. They've been so busy in L.A., she had started to forget what fresh food tastes like.

"Then get a doggy bag and let's go. We've wasted enough time." Faith orders, getting back into straight business mode. It's kinda weird how badly she wants to return to Sunnydale - not that it's her home or anything. Not even close. Yet after Willow filled her in on the battle against The First Evil and protecting the Slayer line, her non-existent sense of duty suddenly exists now.

After the short taco interlude, Fred knows they're getting close - they're less than 50 miles away from their destination according to her handy phone.

When they finally do pass the "Welcome to Mystic Falls" sign, the girls brace themselves for the worst. Faith is remarkably driving at an acceptable speed and the girls look out of their windows to see kids playing, women gossiping and high school students hanging out after school. No masses of dead bodies. No vampires roaming the streets. No hell on earth, at least not yet.

"So do you think the apocalypse is happening before or after the book club?" Faith sneers as she finds a parking spot in front of the Mystic Grill. It just looks like the place in town to get information, she swears. If it's one thing Faith knows how to do well (other than slaying), it's finding people to party with. Plus Slayer sense has to come in handy sometimes.

"We've never blatantly ignored any of Lorne's readings." Fred replies confidently. "If he says that prophecy is going to come true here and now, then it probably will."

Faith nods unconvinced as they walk in. The little town that's barely on the map doesn't look like much, but she's open to anything. Stranger things have happened to her, right? Right.

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><p><strong>Be Good &amp; Review!<strong>

_I've been working on this story for a few months. I wrote it for the Vampire Big Bang challenge on LJ. It was actually one of my request stories for breast cancer too. I'm so happy that my first crossover is done and I hope there's some of you out there that will enjoy it too. I'm a little nervous about this new area for me._

_By the way, I love Faith & Fred as characters, so if you're ever in the mood to buddy chat about them… I'm here._

_As for my other stories, I'll be updating "Say Hello" soon._


	2. You're here, magnificent

**CHAPTER 2: You're here, magnificent.**

**N**ot even two steps into the hangout spot, Faith's got that tingly feeling in her bones and not the naughty kind.

She grabs Fred's arm, stopping her in place.

"Vampire." Faith mutters in disgust. "Huh. There might be a reason for this trip after all."

"Here?" Fred replies looking around. "It's daylight."

"Makes things interesting, doesn't it?" Faith retorts, pulling her towards the bar.

Fred sits down warily next to her.

"Relax." Faith orders. "You're safe. That's why I'm here, remember?"

Things are going to be okay, Fred says to herself to build confidence. Just because a vampire can walk around during the day, it doesn't make him different than any other vampire. Suddenly, she feels foolish for being afraid, she's been through a hell of a lot more, with that thought in mind- she immediately calms down.

"So… how do we do this exactly?" Fred asks trying to understand how the Slayer operates.

"Me, I'm thinking we get a drink and sit tight for the gossip to come rolling in." Faith replies, signaling the bartender to come down their way. "Small town and all, so let's just not start asking people about vampires."

"Okay." Fred replies evenly. Be cool, you are cool, she thinks.

Matt Donovan had noticed the two brunettes at the bar the minute they had walked in. Come on- he's lived in Mystic Falls his entire life, needless to say - he always knows when someone is an outsider.

After taking their drink orders, he has to ask the pressing question. "Where are you guys from?"

"Around." Faith answers.

"Los Angeles." Fred adds more specifically.

"Los Angeles. Really?" Matt looks impressed. He's never been out to the west coast. He's never been anywhere, really. "That's cool."

"Real cool." Faith replies sarcastically.

"Hey, so where's a good place to stay for a night or two?" Fred asks sweetly.

"Uh, well." Matt thinks and scratches the back of his neck. "You don't have many options that are in town. I'd say try Mrs. Flowers."

"Mrs. Flowers?" Faith scoffs at the name. Total book club town, she knew it!

"It's the Bed & Breakfast off the highway." Matt elaborates.

"That sounds great… thanks for your help." Fred replies with a coy smile.

Before Matt gets the chance to ask the unlikely tourists what they're doing in town, he gets called down to the other end of the bar by the resident 'bad boy' - Damon Salvatore.

Damon looks annoyed after waiting and asks for his regular bourbon on the rocks. He's getting pretty sick of waiting for Alaric to show up and it's been worse without a drink in hand.

Faith's curious eyes land on the ridiculously hot guy with raven locks and pale skin who's wearing all black. She inspects him closer and suddenly comes to the conclusion that he's likely the vampire that she's sensing in the room, just by appearances of course. He looks better than your average mortal, vampires always do. Faith quickly tells Fred to hold on for a second, so she can get a 'read' on him.

However before Faith reaches his side, Alaric gets to him first. Alaric pats Damon on the back as he greets him. The guys are meeting for their routine happy hour. Faith continues walking closer to Damon and she smiles smugly because he's giving off major waves of badness. He's definitely the vampire in the room. Trying to look more covert for no particular reason, Faith finds the bathroom and goes in for a few minutes, before returning to an anxious Fred's side.

"He's the one." Faith informs her, nodding at the vampire that's wearing a black leather jacket.

"Him?" Fred asks raising a brow seeing the wicked smirk on his face. "Is the other one too?"

"No, he's human."

"A vampire with a human friend."

"Like that's never been done before." Faith cracks with a knowing look. "Maybe he's like Angel."

"I thought Angel was the only vampire with a soul." Fred states confused.

"Evil or not. I bet we'll get along just fine…" Faith declares with conviction, her eyes firmly leering at him. "Let's do this."

"Do what - exactly?" Fred asks, eyes going wide. "I'd much prefer if we had a plan." She whispers. "Plans are good things."

"I'm more of a doer." Faith replies still walking with fierce determination toward their target. "Just follow my lead."

"Hey, I'm Faith." She introduces herself confidently and seductively, walking up to the guys. "This is Fred. We're new in town."

"That you are." Damon replies dryly, while shamelessly checking out her leather pants. He automatically knows that she's not the usual sort this town brings in. "Damon Salvatore."

"As in the Salvatore boarding house?" Fred perks up remembering a fact in her research prior to their trip.

"Yep." He answers in the same dry tone.

"Damon doesn't really do guests anymore." Alaric states with a firm expression. He knows exactly how unwelcoming his friend can be at times, well, most of the time about humans in the boarding house. "I'm Ric, by the way."

"Oh, no, we don't want to sleep with you, I mean- stay with you." Fred stammers in front of the men. Damn, she'll never forgive herself for that ludicrous mental slip. "Are you by any chance, uh, related to Zach Salvatore?"

"Who are you again?" Damon asks suspiciously. Generally it isn't a good thing when people ask about someone he killed, a descendant or not.

"I'm a researcher." Fred answers quickly.

"Really into that war…." Faith adds hoping Fred's awkwardness hasn't already blown their cover. It's obvious the science nerd doesn't have much street recon experience.

"The Civil War." Fred corrects, repositioning her glasses.

"Right." Damon and Faith reply at the same time. Their intense eyes lock for a second before Fred continues to babble on. "I was supposed to find Zach, 'cause he has some diaries that I wanted to copy."

"I would be happy to help you with anything you need. I'm a history teacher at the local high school." Alaric states with a smile.

"That sounds like fun, only boring." Faith rolls her eyes at his enthusiasm.

Damon chuckled a little at her natural sass. He happens to like girls with sass. "I take it you're not also a researcher."

"Fuck, no." Faith exclaims in protest, then adds a wink. "I'm something else entirely."

Of course with two academic minds in the room, Fred and Alaric begin chatting about civil war trivia. She tries her best to keep up with him, he's a lot better than her at this type of stuff. Sure, she's a certified genius, but the Liberal Arts were never listed in her curriculum requirements.

Meanwhile Faith and Damon share a strange yet silent conversation of sorts. They are sizing each other up, getting a feel for one another so to speak, but for completely different reasons.

"Kinda had my fill of the whole school thing." Faith states bored. "So is this guy Zach around? Your pops or whatever?"

"Uncle." Damon confirms emotionlessly. "He's out of town."

"I'm sure you could help Fred out." Alaric turns with a pleading look, the kind that says he's on his way to getting laid so don't mess it up.

Damon scowls in annoyance, he doesn't want strangers reading through those diaries. He's protective about his family's history for a reason. Those are personal.

"Sorry to put you on the spot. I don't mean to impose, really." Fred interjects effectively breaking the tension filled silence.

Alaric glares at Damon for not helping the seemingly harmless girl and then begins to tell stories about Mayor Lockwood and their family's plantation site.

Damon quickly downs the last of his drink realizing that the strangers are likely going to get pretty nosy in the coming days. What a pain, he mutters under his breath. "Looks like we might run into each other later. Now if you excuse me, I actually have prior engagements for this evening."

After a quick goodbye and an exchange of extra passive aggressiveness between the guys, Faith and Fred are left with only Alaric to entertain them.

"So Fred's a pretty unique name." Alaric coos. "Are your parents the eccentric types?"

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><p><em>Really happy that some of you are reading this story. I really appreciate it. :)<em> **Be Good & Review!**


	3. Life sentence, I'm every bit deserving

**CHAPTER 3: And this life sentence that I'm serving, I admit that I'm every bit deserving.**

Faith hails her hand to summon the bartender, sensing she'll need another drink if she has to sit through more history lessons that she was absent for the first time around. She fucking hates this part of the gig and she's already been itching for a spot of violence. What the hell, at this point, she's up to patrolling in this tiny town once the sun sets. She grimaces wondering if all of the vamps in these parts can walk in the sun, because then this might get complicated.

After drowning out the Battle of Manassas for thirty minutes, Faith can't handle the two geeks for a second longer. She's about to lose it. Okay, sure, Angel wants her to protect Fred, but Slayers worked alone when it came to getting down and dirty.

After confirming that Alaric would make sure Fred gets back safe to the B&B later, Faith left the two in favor of cleaning up and patrolling the area.

Man - and I thought Sunnydale was small, Faith mutters to herself as she walks around town.

After awhile of not seeing anything remotely interesting in the populated areas, she decides to move to the outskirts. By dusk, she's heading towards the cemetery where truth be told she's been dying to get a hit in all day. Unfortunately as she patrols the smaller than Sunnydale sized space, she figures not much is gonna happen based on the lack of fresh graves.

What a joke, the Slayer rolls her eyes at the lack of supernatural activity. There aren't any tell-tale clues to go on, no trail of bodies or anything else for her to track.

Eyeing the forrest, she begins to wonder if there will be a nest hidden in there. One thing is for certain - she's not ready to hear Fred prattle on about Alaric, so she'll keep looking for awhile longer.

In the thickness and darkness of the forrest, Faith's senses are going wild feeling everything around her at tenfold. In sensory overload, Faith has to shut out anything ordinary and focus on what she hopes to find.

A distinct sound of rustling that's different from all the rest captures Faith's attention and she heads in its direction. There in the distance, she sees it, the someone out of the ordinary. A superbeing is running through the forrest at maximum speed. Not that she'll ever admit it aloud, but she's fairly impressed by its agility.

Finally there's some action for her to investigate since the trip has thus far been out of her realm. Hunting has always come naturally to her, it makes her at ease with herself - go figure. It - whatever 'it' is - is fast, but not faster than her. There isn't much under the sun or moon that's faster than a Slayer. With deep concentration, Faith closes her eyes to narrow down the noises around her and pinpoint her prey. Then, suddenly, she's running fast through the foreign woods, sharp shrubs and scattered pine cuts at her, but she doesn't stop. Now that she's close, she realizes that she's been tracking a lean male. Werewolf... vampire... something else? Whatever it is, she can handle it.

Without fear or much of a plan, Faith jumps right in front of the superbeing. The superbeing snarls and she sees fangs - vampire for sure - she gives him a solid roundhouse kick knocking him back into the large tree to the side of him. The vampire appears startled, almost confused, and she quickly grabs the stake that's hidden in her boot. The vampire eyes widen and his facial features revert to his human mask.

"Stop, I'm not going to hurt you." He announces firmly.

"Aw, that's so sweet." Faith coos mockingly before lunging at him with the stake aimed at his heart.

Stefan is able to dodge the stake just fine, but he's shocked when he isn't able to restrain her. "What are you?" He shouts, grabbing her with all of his strength and she whines a little before throwing him off her.

"Stop." Stefan demands trying to reason with the abnormally strong young woman. "Let's just stop."

Stefan backs up a bit from her. Faith looks at him disbelieving shaking her head.

"Man, what is it about the vamps in this whack town."

"Alright, you obviously know what I am." Stefan retorts. "Now, who are you and what do you want?"

Faith chuckles. "I'm the Slayer."

Stefan looks at her blankly.

"As in vampire Slayer. Slayer of vampires..." She adds placing her hand on her hip.

Stefan continues to look at her blankly before bursting into unexpected laughter. "Yeah and I'm Dracula."

She stares him down with this deadly glare.

"You can't be serious... oh, wait, you are." Stefan instantly sobers and studies her in a suspicious manner. "I thought you were a myth or at least blond."

"Not a myth and I'm the other one." Faith rolls her eyes.

"The other one?" Stefan is baffled. "There's more than one of you..."

"Enough." Faith grumbles annoyed. "I think it's time to die."

Stefan pulls to the side just in time and he jumps into the tree, a move she didn't expect. She can't jump as high as him, she knows this. She doesn't like feeling inadequate.

"Look we could do this all day." Stefan states taking a casual seat on a branch. "I'm not getting any older. But I have a feeling that you didn't come all the way out here just to slay vampires."

"I'm here to save the world." Faith yells up at him. Damn, I'm never gonna get used to saying that, she mutters to herself.

"The world?" Stefan replies in wonder. "You're new in town, chances are you don't even know where to start. How about I help you out?"

"I think there's a problem with your head. This isn't what we do."

"Even if I were to tell you that I don't drink human blood?"

"Then I'd say I'd maybe give you a shot."

"I don't drink human blood. Only animal blood. That's why I'm out here, I was hunting." Stefan explains in a calm voice.

Faith stays quiet for a moment trying to decide whether or not to take his word, since she's a natural risk taker, she settles on going for it.

"Hey, don't try and tell me that all of you are family friendly.,"

"All? I'm not your first vampire?" Stefan is slightly alarmed, worrying about his big brother before figuring there's no way he'd get caught so easily. After all, Damon's reflexes are spotless.

"Okay, that's it Tree Huger, I'm done. This has been a complete waste of my time. And the next time I see you, I will kill you." Faith dismisses him, cursing, walking in the opposite direction.

In a flash, Stefan jumps out of the tree and appears before her. "Stop. If there's another vampire in town that I don't know about - that's bad."

Faith lets out an exaggerated sigh before giving him details on the vampire she detected back at the bar.

"That's Damon. My brother."

"Like you're real brother?" Faith raises a brow. "Or do you guys just have the same sire?"

"Both... actually." Stefan replies quietly. "You didn't by chance attack him as well?"

"No, I couldn't. I spotted him in a bar, in broad daylight." Faith shrugs and then the question that's been nagging her comes up. "About that, how are you not on fire right now?"

Stefan almost tells her before realizing that he would be revealing a powerful weakness to her. "We're special and there's two of us and one of you, so it looks like the odds aren't in your favor."

"There are worse things out there than you. I would know." Faith scoffs. "If I say you're dead, you're dead."

"Is it so hard to believe that maybe we don't want the world to end, too?" Stefan asks attempting to reason with her.

Getting annoyed with the stubborn Slayer, Stefan moves in closely to her and focuses on her eyes to compel her. "How about we'll show you around while you're here and in exchange, you leave us alone and don't mention our existence to anyone."

"Ugh. Personal space, much? Look it up." Faith says taking a few steps back, proving that compulsion doesn't work on her kind. "Alright. I'll play, but don't even think about double crossing me. I still feel funny about all of this." Her right hand motions at Stefan's body.

"So, your brother, also on the Wildlife Meal Plan?" She asks, her brows furrow.

"Uh... no." Stefan admits evenly. "But he hasn't killed in anyone in awhile?"

"Awhile?" Faith sneers. "I don't think you get the gist of my job description."

"He just drinks from blood bags." Stefan replies quickly. "You won't have to worry about him."

"And why don't you?"

"Why don't I what?"

"Drink from blood bags." Faith rolls her eyes.

Stefan's lips part in understanding of her confusion. "It's a personal decision."

Faith looks at him suspiciously.

"Can we stop talking about blood?" Stefan exclaims getting frustrated. "You said the world is going to end. Starting here in Mystic Falls."

"The world might end." She corrects raising a brow.

"Okay. Where do we start? Do you what's going to happen? When?"

"Woah, easy Dude, this is how this is going to work: You show me around. I ask the questions. The end. I can't have you meddling in things like the apocalypse. The Powers That Be have a way of screwing shit up when you mess with fate."

"The Powers That Be?" Stefan frowns and begins to question Faith, but she interrupts him abruptly.

"This isn't my first time, alright? I got this." She states, placing a firm hand on his right shoulder. "Now, I need to know everything about..."

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><p><em><strong>Be Good &amp; Review!<strong> After writing this fic, I actually find myself shipping Faith/Stefan enough to make a fanvid for them. Haha_


	4. I don't believe in fairytales

**CHAPTER 4: She's just asking for it.**

**"**You're not going to need the diaries." Stefan says as they walk back to the boarding house.

"How can you be so sure?" Faith replies doubtfully.

"Because I'm a better source than anything you're going to find in those diaries. I lived here during the Civil War."

Faith glances at Stefan trying to figure out if he really thinks that he's fooling her.

"Right. Still, Fred is certain she'll be able to track down what we need after she checks this out."

"Fred?" Stefan asks, stopping in the road.

"The brain that I'm babysitting." Faith explains with a shrug.

"I didn't realize Slayers had sidekicks." Stefan quips with a frown.

"We don't." Faith frowns. She has always been alone. "This is a solo gig."

"Well, how did you meet Fred? She's just human? She's not a witch or is she?"

"Fred's not a witch and it doesn't matter how I know her. What matters is getting her those diaries so I can take care of this and get the fuck out of here."

"I already told you, you're not going to need the diaries." Stefan assures her, more than anything, he doesn't want the Slayer to read about his vicious past. The Slayer doesn't seem partial to his kind much and he didn't want to give her anymore ammo against him. "What do you want to know?"

Faith raises a brow in question, but decides to spill some of the story. Just the facts for sure. Like she said, she isn't going to try and change fate on a whim. "Apparently this kook of an inventor lived here back in the day, Jonathon Gilbert-"

"Jon never actually invented anything." Stefan interrupts. "Emily - a witch - she enchanted his so-called inventions and fooled him into thinking that his inventions succeeded."

"Magic." Faith comments with a disgusted glare. "No surprise there. Everything is always about magic."

"So which 'invention' are you here for?" Stefan asks curious.

"Damn, man, this is some place you got here. I mean Angel lives in a hotel, but it's not as good on the upkeep as this place." Faith declares twirling around the parlor room after they walk into the boarding house.

"Who's Angel?"

"You've never heard of Angel? The Angel? Former son-of-a-bitch vampire that woke up cursed with a soul. Now spends his days being a 'champion of the people' and self-loathing over the former glory days."

"Angel..." Stefan mutters. "Angelus?"

Faith nods as if saying 'finally'!

Then taking Faith by complete surprise, Stefan bursts into laughter. A lough, raucous laughter.

"What the hell is so funny?" She demands, glaring at him.

"Uh, nothing." Stefan attempts to call down. "Just a bit of vampire humor is all, you wouldn't really understand."

"Whatever." Faith shrugs him off in a dismissive manner. The dude was getting on her nerves to the point that she couldn't even deal with him.

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><p><strong>CHAPTER 5: I don't believe in fairytales, but I believe in you and me.<strong>

**A**t the height of happy hour at the university bar, Elena weaves through the hordes of football fans waiting for the away game to kickoff on the big screen. She doubts that she's even going to find a booth that's open, so instead she has to find a standing table somewhere.

At last when Elena claims a table, it's small and in the back, but it has chairs. It only sits two. It can't be anymore than 2 rulers long. The fact that she can't see the screen from her seat isn't lost on her. This has never been about football. It's always been about them spending time together. An excuse, when an excuse had never been needed.

Every monday night, same bar, Damon visits Elena on campus and they do absolutely nothing interesting and it's been enough - so far - for them.

They've been through a lot together these past few years without ever having gotten together. Stefan has never been the same since returning from Klaus' hold and Elena felt too guilty to move on from their tragic love story. Meanwhile, there was Damon would always love her, while knowing he's destined to remain in Second Place. He's the third wheel that could never walked away. Long ago, he had promised to her that he wouldn't walk away and he meant it.

Years later, Damon still holds onto his Eternal Stud status, rarely ever mentioning those forsaken eight letters to her. Of course Elena has noticed there hasn't been anything crossing their routine flirting between them, but predictably they've always ignored the topic of dating other people.

A buzz brings Elena's head out of the clouds.

She rolls her eyes at the fact that she actually scared herself. It's just her cell phone. Not that other thing in her pocket.

Elena smirks reading a text from Damon. He seems worried that she's not in the bar since she's not in plain sight. Elena stands up to spot him in the crowd. Even with a packed house, he's never hard for her to find. His raven locks and signature leather jacket are pretty much one of a kind, at least in her opinion.

As Damon approaches the table, she can see a slight cockiness in his expression that questions her selection for the darken, candlelit table away from prying eyes. The whole scene kinda screams that they're on an actual date and that fact is obviously appealing to him, very appealing.

Elena clears her throat and smiles, reclaiming her seat. "I got here late."

"Mmm Hmm." He retorts and sits down with her. He finds great amusement seeing her discomfort around him. She knows that he can read her like an open book.

With everything going on around in the bar and Damon's natural presence, Elena is a little distracted to notice what's unnaturally occurring in her hoodie's pocket. Then a few minutes later, Damon grabs her hand in between conversation, just a gentle touch, and she pulls away from him dramatically. A flash of hurt crosses his eyes, something align to rejection, before realizing that she's in physical pain and her adverse reaction has nothing to do with him.

"What's wrong?" He asks seriously, remaining calm but his eyes give away his worry.

"It's the…" She exclaims pulling the scorching hot silver pocket mirror out of her hoodie's pocket.

Not surprising, she drops it, since it burned her hand at the same rate as a direct touch with an iron.

"What the-" Damon is baffled bending down to grab the offending object from the floor.

Yet upon touching the pocket mirror, he collapses on the floor. There's no delay in the action. Elena didn't even have a chance to react.

Even though they're in a secluded little spot, they're still located in a very crowded, hyper-aware co-ed filled bar. Other people saw him collapse when it happened.

Elena is hysterical over him and doesn't know what to do. Before she knows it, there are others crowded around them too. She gets knocked over by a fellow student that also happens to be an EMT. Before she has a chance to utter a word, the young man turns to her with a dire expression.

"He's alive, but his pulse is too low to be normal. He needs medical attention immediately." The young man explains quickly before turning to call 911.

"His pulse is too low." Elena whispers to herself trying to comprehend the words. No matter how many times she's repeated the words aloud, it's still not making sense.

Vampires do not have heartbeats.

Vampires… living dead… undead. Elena's thoughts are racing and everything she's known since she was 17-freaking-years-old suddenly doesn't matter.

The game has changed.

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><p>Happy Halloween Weekend, everyone! I decided to post both chapters 4&amp;5, because I know my DE fans were excited to see them. <span>I made the StefanFaith video, it's really dark and has nothing to do with this story. Click the link on my profile to see it. Enjoy. **Be Good & Review**!


	5. Come undone, Through the looking glass

**CHAPTER 6: **Left with no reason, we come undone.****

**I**t's nearly ten in the evening. Faith is going stir crazy inside the boarding house. She's cursing Fred. She's cursing herself for agreeing to come along on this wild apocalypse hunt. Yesterday had been an entire waste of her time. She should be with Buffy. Buffy needs her. Why can't she stop thinking about fucking Buffy? At that thought, she slams her fist against the wall, causing it to shake a bit.

Stefan flashes down at the disruption and almost startles her. He's been stalling this entire time since they've arrived to the boarding house. Hours and hours have passed. He doesn't want to give her any of the journals that they keep in the boarding house. It's too risky for her to find out everything about them, she's a goddamn vampire slayer for hell's sake.

"Is everything okay?" Stefan asks.

"You tell me." She snaps.

"I don't know where the journals are." He answers with a stoic expression. "… You can wait until my brother comes home though."

"I've kinda had my fill of waiting." She replies. "I need to smoke."

Faith moves in a hurry to get out of the boarding house and Stefan falls closely behind her.

"Hey, so, did you reach her -Fred was it?" He asks.

Faith nods "I told her about the snitch."

"And she knows that I'm a vampire?"

"Dude, chill." She retorts sounding close to exasperated. "She lives with a vampire. You're not that special."

Stefan frowns slightly, not sure why her words stung so much.

Faith holds out a cigarette to him, offering him one.

He shakes his head. "I quit that for good in the 1950s."

She looks a little puzzled, since it's not like vampires can get cancer.

"It makes the teeth yellow." Stefan explains with an explanatory grin where the fangs comes in.

At that, Faith can't help but chuckle a little. It's a little humorous to imagine a vampire with yellow teeth.

In between some more meaningless chatter, Alaric's car pulls up in the driveway. Stefan's demeanor changes completely as he sees Jeremy get out of the car.

"Hey." Alaric greets tiredly.

Stefan shoots a questioning look over his shoulder at the younger Gilbert and Fred in the background.

"Got Jeremy to bring over some of Jonathan's journals. Of course, he insisted on coming along." Alaric explains with a knowing glance back and forth.

"Hi, I'm Fred." She introduces meekly and fixes her glasses on her face.

"I'm-"

"Stefan Salvatore." Fred interrupts.

"I know." She says ominously.

There's an awkward look between them. There's more tension between them than there was yesterday with Damon. Stefan can sense she is more aware of the situation. He just hopes she doesn't go blabbing to the Slayer. Damn, he's screwed, he thinks. His Ripper past isn't justifiable, he knows this. He'll be dead by dawn.

Fred appears to keep a few feet away from Stefan at all times. He hears her accelerated heartbeat. He wishes there was a way to say, 'I'm not in the mood to viciously kill you and put you back together for my personal enjoyment', but the words elude him.

Faith and the young Gilbert share some mutual ogling. She likes his look, he's a little rough in all the right ways.

"He's related to Jonathan." Fred explains about Jeremy to Faith.

"Oh, goody." Faith replies dryly. She's not happy about yet another person finding out about the possible apocalypse. They are supposed to keep things on the down low. At the rate they were going, they might as well gather everyone for a Town Hall meeting.

"So what are we looking for, exactly?" Stefan prompts everyone in the parlor room once they've settled down.

He looks over directly at Fred.

"It should be about this round." Fred explains seriously, showing the size with her fingers. "I need to destroy it before it does any damage to the universe."

"The universe?" Jeremy raises a brow. Of course he thinks she's just being a little dramatic, but that's only because he hasn't seen what she has. She's seen a lot in her time.

Faith lets out a long sigh, because she doesn't want to waste time talking about details. "Let's not." She states, dismissing his inquiring eyes. "You either help or you're out."

"Who died and made you boss?" Jeremy snaps.

"She's a Slayer." Fred whispers to him as if that's supposed to make him cower away.

"Can we at least know what this thing does?" Alaric quips noticing Stefan and Jeremy looking tense.

"It recovers Lost Souls." Fred explains in her serious, clinical tone.

"Lost Souls." Stefan states. "That sounds like magic stuff. We're going to need Bonnie. Or more specifically, her grimoire."

"He says the dude never made anything." Faith explains to Fred. "All of his inventions were phony. Phony enchantments."

"I'll still need to know what it looks like. Lorne didn't give me much to go on." Fred replies hastily, continuing to flip through the pages of the journal that she's holding.

"Uh, guys, I think I might have found it." Alaric declares reading a page in one of Jon's entries. He lifts it up to show Fred.

"A mirror!" Fred squeals in nerdy delight. "Of course."

"Check it out." Faith quips in false admiration. Fred's burst of energy is humorous to her.

"Why a mirror?" Stefan asks Fred.

"It's just so symbolic." Fred replies. "Several ancient cultures believed that your reflection is actually the image of your soul. Certain covens have claimed to have mastered trapping souls within a mirror. However, most skeptics and paranormal scientists believe that all of these mirror stories are nothing more than myths."

So all he has to do is find the mirror for them, destroy it and send the strangers on their merry way, Stefan thinks confidently to himself.

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 7:<strong> **The looking glass, so shiny and new, how quickly the glamour fades.**

**E**lena may truly loathe Mystic Falls General Hospital, but right now she's grateful that she still has some pull around the place, even after all these years. Her late father, the respected Dr. Grayson Gilbert left a strong impression on the medical community in Mystic Falls. It's because of this special connection that she's allowed to be in Damon's room. After all, he's not her family nor her husband. It's still shocking that it's Damon in the hospital bed this time and not her.

The pulse meter next to his bed is supposed to make the situation more real to her, but it's only making her worry more.

Elena knows that pulse meter means so much more. It means Damon is alive. This is the first time his heart has had any activity since the Civil War period. Lost in her thoughts, she enters a daze staring at the rhythm of his heart on the meter. It isn't until the doctor walks in that she's taken away from her puzzling thoughts.

"Hi, Elena." Dr. Simon Tam greets walking in the door.

"Is Damon going to be okay?" Elena asks worried, instantly standing up seeing the doctor enter the room.

"Mr. Salvatore is going to be okay." Simon confirms. "That is as far as I know, it's always hard to be 100 percent when not knowing the patient's medical history prior to admission. Tell me Elena, do you know if he has a history of heart problems?"

"Not that I know of." Elena answers, swallowing thickly. His heart isn't supposed to be working, she hears repeating in her head.

"We've done what we can to stabilize him, but we won't know more until he wakes up."

"He will wake up though, right?" Elena asks, biting her lip.

"Yes, he should. He's not in a coma, if that's what you're asking."

Instant relief floods her now that she knows for certain that Damon will come back to her. She can't imagine a world without Damon.

"Thanks Simon... for everything." Elena says as sweet as possible to the young doctor.

"I could get in a lot of trouble for this. Letting you stay in here overnight, but it broke my heart seeing you so messed up earlier. You're dad is still the best mentor that I've ever had, so I had to do right by him."

Elena nods awkwardly, she doesn't like thinking about her dad or anyone else that's died on her for that matter. It just reminds her how alone she is in the world. She's still completely freaked out by the idea of losing Damon, all these years, he's always been constant. He's never not been there for her when she's sought him out. Even her own brother, Jeremy, had seemingly moved on with his life. He spends more time with Bonnie than anyone else, and truth be told, Elena is surprised he hasn't popped the question yet.

"So is he like your boyfriend?" Simon asks with a tiny smirk on his face.

"What?" Elena asks dazed, lost in thought.

Simon gives her a pointed look and then over his shoulder in Damon's direction.

"Oh, no, no." Elena tries hard not to blush. She doesn't know why she's reacting this way, it's just a simple question. "He's my, well, we're, uh, like best friends. He's great, I care about him. A lot..."

"And you want more, but he doesn't?" Simon guesses, crossing his arms.

"No, it's not like that." Elena shakes her head. "It's... complicated."

"Why, is he married?" He asks with a judgmental look.

Elena giggles at the idea of Damon being married to anyone. "No, he's not exactly the marrying type."

"But you are, aren't you?" Simon probes.

Elena shrugs. "Maybe." She allows.

"You asked me to marry you." He teases.

Her mouth drops in shock before remembering. "Come on. I was 6. It was make believe and hey, mr, you said no!"

"I was 14!" Simon laughs at the memory he's still got even after all of this time.

"I thought you were pretty cute." Elena laughs, her brow raises in a mocking fashion.

"I'm still cute." Simon defends.

Before Elena can come up with a smart counter response, Damon begins coughing, alerting the both of them that he is awake.

"Oh my god, Damon!" Elena shrieks rushing to his side. "Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

"I'm alive." Damon declares baffled, the shock is obvious on his face.

"Now, Mr. Salvatore. I'm Dr. Tam and you're going to be just fine." He assures. "You suffered from a minor cardiac arrest, but you've been perfectly stable for the past few hours."

Damon doesn't know what to say, he just stares back at the young doc in shock.

"Elena." Simon says, placing his hand on his right shoulder. "I'm gonna need you to step aside now, so I can check his vitals."

"Oh sure." Elena remarks, giving Damon a tiny smile that's just for him, squeezing his hand in support.

"Are you comfortable with Elena being present in the room?" Simon asks, protocol kicking in.

Damon nods numbly. He continues to stare at Elena, barely paying attention to the doc as he gets examined.

After Damon is all clear in the health department, Simon explains that he'll have to be kept overnight for observation, but that he'll likely be released come breakfast time the following morning.

"I can't believe this." Elena comments, climbing onto Damon's hospital bed after Simon leaves.

"You're telling me." Damon agrees, grabbing her hand and placing it on his heart.

"So incredible." She replies in awe and removes her hand. He is disappointed by the loss of contact, but then she places her head over his chest and makes everything better. He enjoys being so close to her and breathes in her scent. She doesn't smell the same, because he's lost his enhanced senses, but she still smells better than anything in the world. He carefully begins to pet her hair and secretly hopes that she won't move away from him.

"The last thing I remember is seeing that weird rock burn your hand and then I passed out." Damon starts after a few quiet moments have passed.

"The mirror." Elena gasps and flies out of his arms, running across the room to her handbag.

"What mirror?" Damon questions slowly.

"That thing that burned my hand wasn't a rock." She answers hastily, holding up the artifact in her hands. "It was this."

"What?" Damon frowns.

"See..." Elena shows him the mirror, by opening it up.

"Let me guess, it's a magic mirror." Damon replies dryly.

"I found it in the attic." Elena answers meekly.

"My attic?" He questions suspiciously.

"No, mine."

"So it probably belonged to Jon from my time." Damon states putting it together in my head. "He's the only that came up with shit like this, well, shit for Emily to mess around with."

Elena gives him a small shrug. "I didn't know this was going to happen, I hope you're not mad at me..."

"Mad at you?" Damon laughs darkly. "Don't be ridiculous. You gave me another chance. Another chance at the life I never got to to have. A chance to do things right."

Elena gives him a tentative smile because of course she has no idea how long he's going to human and what the costs are going to be. Magic always has consequences, she's learned by now.

"I just don't get why ol' Jon wanted to find a way to turn a vamp human..." Damon ponders aloud. "Maybe he was scared about trying to stake-"

"He wasn't trying to revert a vampire." Elena interrupt. "His diary said the mirror would lead him to the space of the Lost Souls. I think he wanted to see his dead wife again."

"Abigail." Damon nods in understanding. "Stefan killed her."

Elena's lips part in remembrance.

"What did Stefan say when you told him?"

"Oh, god, I didn't even think of calling Stefan." Elena replies in horror.

"My brother still doesn't know that I've joined the ranks of the living?" He raises a brow in amusement.

Elena gives him an embarrassed look.

Damon chuckles. "This is going to be awesome." He can't wait to see how his baby brother is going to react to the news.

"Awesome." Elena repeats quietly. She would be more comfortable if Damon started freaking out. She had thought that he'd be pissed off about aging and never being able to compel someone again. She thinks he hasn't thought this through all the way, doesn't he understand how painful it is to be human? What's he going to do at his age? Is he too old for college? Or maybe Damon already has a degree, he has implied the fact a few times, hasn't he?

"Elena? Hello, earth to Elena." Damon says loudly, startling her a little.

"What's up?" She replies, trying very hard to sound normal and in control of her emotions.

"I asked if you had eaten yet and if you know anywhere that would deliver here." Damon repeats annoyed. "Cause you know there's no way I'm touching that." He scoffs, staring at the tray on the table to his left side.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Be Good &amp; Review!<em> **Yes, it's true, I think the hottest TV doctor ever is Dr. Simon Tam. I love inserting him in stories just for laughs. So my big news is that I'm working on a Faye/Diana (Secret Circle) fic. It's going to be a multi-chap. It will have some Diana/Adam, Faye/Adam in it too. First chapter will be posted tonight. Check it out. xoxo


	6. Reminding me of my wild heart

**CHAPTER 8: The funny thing about forever is that it comes with a side of never-never.**

"That's not possible." Stefan remarks with a doubtful expression after hearing Fred explain their reason for being in town. There's no way a vampire can revert back to being human... just no way.

Faith and Fred exchange a knowing look thinking of the Shanshu Prophecy.

"Is it?" Stefan swallows thickly.

"We've never met a vampire that turned human, but this isn't the first time we've heard of this possibility either." Fred settles on saying.

"Anything is possible." Jeremy remarks aloud. "With magic… anything is possible."

"Bonnie brought me back to life." Jeremy reminds everyone firmly. "I was also haunted by my dead vampire ex-girlfriends because of it. Don't talk to me about impossible.

"Plural?" Fred remarks with a cute smirk.

Jeremy simply shrugs.

"And you think Jonathan Gilbert had something to do this?" Stefan crosses his arm. "He hated vampires. He was a member of the first council with my father. I knew him very well. He wouldn't have come up with anything like this."

"I don't think his device was meant to turn a vampire human. I think this is just a cosmic mistake." Fred answers.

"And I'll give you one guess about who cares about cleaning up cosmic mistakes." Faith adds rolling her eyes.

"So let me get this straight, Jonathan Gilbert wanted to talk to the dead and Bonnie's great, great whatever made it possible? Why would she do that?" Alaric asks, directing his question at Stefan.

"I'm sure she had her reasons." Stefan replies frustrated by the situation. "But there's no way Emily knew she'd be curing vampirism."

"And you don't know which vampire is going to turn human?" Jeremy asks quietly, even though Stefan can still here him perfectly.

"Well, it's either going to be me or Damon." Stefan shrugs, trying to act like it doesn't matter that much to him. He's not fooling anyone in the room.

"Or Caroline." Alaric suggests.

"The vampire is male." Faith corrects. "So it's got to be either of you guys, makes things simple. I mean, that is if there's no other vamps in town that you're holding out on us about."

The group remained quiet until Faith spoke up again. "That is unless I find this mirror and destroy it, then problem solved."

"Does this girl look familiar?" Fred asks, holding up a sketch in her personal notebook.

"That's Katherine." Stefan replies sourly. "Of course this is her fault. But she died... For good... Not too long ago."

"Or it could be my sister." Jeremy chides. "I mean, they do look exactly alike."

Fred and Faith share a knowing look, they've gotten all the info they needed without revealing too much about their agenda.

"Do you think it's possible that Emily was trying to help Katherine?" Alaric asks Stefan. "I mean, they were kinda close, right?"

"What? You mean if Katherine cared about becoming human?" Stefan retorts. "I don't think so, she always did like being in control. She frequently reminded me of the fact."

"Whatever, who cares, it obviously doesn't matter. It never worked. She failed." Faith states getting annoyed by the lack of direction in the conversation.

"You never explained the whole world ending thing." Stefan announces.

"Ending?" Jeremy repeats before staring at the strangers in wonder.

"The only way to stop the apocalypse is to find the device before this situation gets out of control." Fred explains calmly.

"But why would it matter if i... or Damon... or anyone else for that matters turns human?" Stefan asks.

"We don't have the answers that you're looking for, sorry... it doesn't work that way." Fred replies softly.

"Well, how does it work then?" Stefan probes, but gets interrupted by the sound of his cell phone going off. He quickly checks his phone and decides to pick up the call because Elena is trying to reach him.

"Excuse me." Stefan mumbles, walking away from the crowd and into the main hall.

"Hey." He answers in an even tone.

"What's wrong?" He asks realizing that Elena might need his help. She's usually in lecture around this time.

Elena stumbles over the line because she doesn't know where to begin.

"Where are you?" Stefan demands.

"At the hospital..."

"What? Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm fine. I'm calling about Damon." Elena begins hesitantly, she doesn't know how Stefan is going to react to the news. She doesn't want to hurt his feelings. Even though she didn't know this was going to happen, she still feels for responsible for carrying that mirror around.

After their brutally short conversation, Stefan reenters the parlor room quietly, so quietly that the only person that notices him is Faith. The Slayer makes eye contact with him as her senses go wild saying danger is near.

"You're too late." Stefan announces to the outsiders.

"Damon?" Fred concludes quickly, biting her lip in nervousness.

Stefan nods in affirmation.

"Damn." Faith grumbles, shaking her head. "I could have grabbed him this morning, I shouldn't have listened to you."

Fred simply removes her glasses in a moment of self-reflection.

"Damon is human." Alaric states incredulously. "Like right now?"

Stefan nods in a heavy manner. His thoughts are so loud in his head, he can barely function.

"He doesn't get to stay this way." Faith whispers to him, placing her left hand on his shoulder.

"What do you mean?" Stefan asks alarmed by her words. "Just because I wish it had been me doesn't mean I'm going to help take this away from him."

Faith glares at him and Fred gives her a wary look. The girls know things could get complicated if Stefan gets in their way. Deep down though, Faith knows she'll have to take him out if it comes down to that.

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 9: Don't give up on me, please remind me who I really am.<strong>

Elena keeps glancing at Damon warily because he's pretending that everything's okay and he's not going out of his mind. But she knows better, well, it's also easy to figure out by how much his hand is sweating. She tries to hold onto it, but he gives her the brush off. Not like she's supposed to be holding his hand anyway, they aren't like boyfriend and girlfriend. Damn! How did things get so confusing, she asks herself.

"So Stefan didn't say anything? No big reaction?" Damon scoffs on their way back to the boarding house.

"No, not really..." Elena answers truthfully. In all, she actually believes that Stefan might have gone into shock given his lack of response. It was by far one of the weirdest conversations in her life.

"That was sort of a dick move, huh? To just get off the phone with you like that, not even bothering to say hello to me." Damon sneers.

She's still getting used to the fact that he doesn't have an emotional censor anymore. It's never been easier to read him now that's he's no longer a member of Club Undead.

Elena takes a deep breath trying to think of something good to say. "I, he, uh, you know he actually sounded busy. Like he had guests over."

Damon rolls his eyes. "Right, like he can't pry his eyes off Vampire Barbie's…" He coughs abruptly realizing his words. Damn, he really has no filter. "I haven't been human since the fucking Civil War, so excuse me if I sound like I'm begging for attention..." He completes rather sarcastically.

"I know, Damon, I'm sure Stefan is dying to see you too. He must be curious."

"Curious?" Damon questions, turning away from the road to spare a glance at her.

"If you're the same like you used to be. You know, back them."

"I look the same, obviously." He scoffs.

Elena giggles for a moment. She can't help it.

"What?" Damon asks suspiciously, actually looking insecure for the first time in over a century.

"Nothing." Elena continues to giggle.

"Elena." Damon warns, attempting to sound menacing, but failing miserably which irritates him considerably.

"You're not so scary anymore." She teases, sticking out her tongue.

"Don't be so sure." He attempts a hard glare.

Elena shrugs playfully.

"What, Elena?" Damon say aggravated and she begins to giggle again.

"Damon... You are different now." She comments with a big goofy smile on her face. "I can totally tell that you're different. You're so... So... Cute."

"Cute?" Damon scoffs. "I am not cute!"

"You're so cute! Look at your ears, they're turning red because your bothered. Awe." Elena continues to tease and giggles some more.

The trusty blue Chevy comes to an abrupt halt in the middle of the road, thankfully there weren't any cars tailgating them. Damon roughly pulls at his hair in anger and much to his dismay it hurts.

"Damon! Stop!" Elena exclaims attempting to get him to stop. She knows he's having a bit of an emotional breakdown with the hair pulling. "Stop!"

"I can't do this." Damon finally stops, staring at Elena.

"Do what?" She asks slowly.

Damon is nearly having an asthma attack, which simply doesn't suit a man like him.

"Be human! How am I going to be human?" He asks desperately. "I don't know how to be human anymore. One second I want to laugh, the next I want to cry, and God help me, I want you so much, it fucking hurts!"

Elena gasps momentarily by his shattering honesty. It's been a long time since he's mentioned his feelings for her. There's something relieving about the fact that he still wants her, even though he's human now. That he's still thinking about her. Elena can't help the emotions she's feeling right now, she's never felt closer to him than at this moment.

"I'm right here." She promises placing both of her hands on his cheeks. "I'm not going anywhere."

They take a moment of silence before deciding that it be best that she should do the driving the rest of the way. She suddenly feels incredibly stupid for letting him driving home right after turning human. It's just Damon and his precious car, he never lets anyone come near that thing. Elena rolls her eyes and starts to drive, carefully, while Damon sulks. His head bangs on the window, overtaken by the feeling of his own beating heart. Why does it have to be so fucking loud, he thinks in misery.

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 10: We change who we are to who we should be.<strong>

"We're here." Elena announces, bringing him back to reality.

Damon nods seeing the boarding house and slowly opens the car door, truth be told, he's rather anxious to see his baby brother. There's a small part, albeit a tiny one, that's terrified of seeing Stefan. He's not used to being the weak one. God, how is he going to get through this?

When Elena notices that Damon has trouble walking over the last step up to the front door, she grabs his hand and squeezes it.

"You're okay." She says in an even voice. "Come on."

Walking through the door, they instantly notice the talking inside has ceased and there's a bunch of eyes staring at them. Some eyes she doesn't recognize. Stefan sits up and walks toward him, but Damon's eyes are fixed on curvy brunette in particular.

"Do you know her?" Elena asks awkwardly, wondering if the girl is more his type.

"Brother." Stefan states looking over at Damon, his eyes ending at the pair's locked hands.

"You." Damon mutters at Faith.

"What is she doing here?" He asks Stefan.

"I-" Stefan begins.

"No, no, no." Damon snaps and let's go of Elena's hand. Apparently, he's still got his sixth sense that just knows when shit's about to hit the fan. Nothing good ever happens to him, it's not possible, not to him.

"Okay, everyone, what the hell is going on?" Elena demands and no one answers.

"Jer?" She turns helplessly to her brother, hoping he'll be the one to clue her in.

"Damon's human." Alaric comments in a mesmerized voice.

"Damon's human!" Elena shouts at everyone in the room like it's a National Emergency Announcement. "It's true. Okay, everyone, it's true."

Damon raises a brow at her hysterical behavior. She almost seems protective of him? Nah, she probably just doesn't like to be out of the loop, he figures.

"And I think he wants to get some rest." Elena declares in a regular voice. "Right?" She whispers to Damon.

He nods awkwardly. He doesn't appreciate feeling like the best in show with the way people are looking at him.

Elena takes the first step to the grand staircase and looks at Damon, giving him the support needed to follow her.

Before either of them can get to the staircase, Stefan flashes in front of them. Damon actually jumps, which is hilariously ironic, while Elena just glares at her ex-boyfriend.

"Yes… brother?" Damon replies taking a deep breath.

"We need to talk." Stefan says in his typical serious voice.

"Can't this wait?" Damon replies annoyed.

Stefan moves to answer, but he stops him. "Please. Just one night." Damon demands harshly, almost begging. He just knows that Stefan is bearer of bad news and wants his one night as human to go in peace.

"Stefan." Elena chides.

"Let him go." Faith assures Stefan, walking up to them, entering the conversation. "I think this will go better if I talk to Elena first."

"Excuse me?" Elena remarks, deeply confused. She doesn't know who this girl is, but the way Damon was looking at her when they walked in put her on edge to begin with.

"This is Faith." Damon introduces dryly, easily remembering her name from The Grill. Damn, that seems so long ago now. "She got here two days ago… wanting to see Zach. Guess she found Stefan though."

"What does that have to do with me then?" Elena asks slowly.

"Little girl, you should know by now that this is all about you." Faith remarks in her usual sassy swagger.

"You are the doppelgänger." Fred remarks, coming up to them with the sketch of Elena in her hand. "It's quite remarkable, isn't it?" She asks quietly to herself, in a studious tone as if Elena is a precious artifact rather than a person.

Damon instantly steps in front of Elena and glares down at them and more so at his baby brother. "Stefan. What the fuck. Why'd you let them in, if you knew they were after Elena?" He is seconds away from punching Stefan.

"They're not going to hurt her." Stefan promises.

"He's telling the truth. We don't kill humans." Fred says. "Well, at lest, we try not to."

Elena scoffs at the vagueness of her answer.

"I'm a vampire Slayer." Faith explains.

Elena looks even more dumbfounded given that Stefan is a vampire and he's being all buddy-buddy with her.

"You're a liar. And I don't like liars." Damon is pissed off and it even shows a little in the color of his face.

"She's a vampire slayer." Fred confirms.

"Oh, and let me guess, you are too I bet." Damon sneers.

"Nope. Standard-issue science nerd. I did spend five years in a demon dimension..." Fred replies automatically.

Damon ignores Fred and returns his attention to Faith. "If you're really the Slayer… does that mean Buffy died?"

"Twice actually." Fred corrects, fixing her glasses.

"What?" Damon looks shocked.

"Wait, you know B?" Faith is in complete shock over the new development.

"I saw her in California, few years back, but it's not like I approached her." Damon rolls her eyes. "I actually like- liked being undead."

Everyone looks at each other for answers, but in the end, everyone stares at Damon.

"I'm gonna go and let you guys be… weird." He shakes his head and turns around.

"I'll, uh, just, uh check-in with you later." Elena calls up to him.

"Whatever." Damon dismisses, he's past the point of caring and too fucking tired to keep his eyes open anymore. Man, being human is exhausting.

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 11: Damn, this wild heart of mind, it's gonna get me in trouble.<strong>

**"**Now are you going to tell me what's going on?" Elena asks, walking away from the staircase after looking at it longingly. All she wants right now is to be with Damon, because she knows he's going to have a hard time adapting. Who wouldn't after such a big change? She doesn't want him to hurt himself.

"If you're a vampire slayer, then what do you want with me?" Elena crosses her arms. "I'm not one, obviously."

"Yeah, the gig's a little bit more than just slaying." Faith remarks in a patronizing tone.

"Faith. Maybe it's better that I talk to her." Fred chides.

"Be my guest." Faith concedes with a smirk. "I'll just sit tight."

"How rude of me, by the way." Fred introduces herself. "I'm Fred."

"You obviously know who I am." Elena rolls her eyes.

"Okay." Fred nods forming her thoughts. "See, the thing is, we were sent here to investigate some things after getting a tip that something bad was going to happen."

"What?" Elena asks confused. "So you're here to protect me then?"

"Not exactly." Fred stutters.

"Let me clear this up." Faith speaks up impatiently. "When she says 'something bad', what she actually means to say is the world's going to end. And that's something I can't let happen."

Elena just looks at both of the brunette's like they're total freaks.

"It's simple actually. You ever hear the story of that special little girl that wasn't supposed to exist because she continues the doppelgänger line?"

"I thought you weren't going to hurt me." Elena points out backing up, looking at Stefan helplessly.

"I'm not. Stop interrupting." Faith snaps.

"Woah, okay. Everyone just needs to calm down." Jeremy finally butts in, not appreciating the sudden aggressiveness that's being directed at his sister.

Fred and Alaric look at each other helplessly, not sure what to do about the tension in the room.

"Well, kiddo, you exist and that's a problem. But you know what, you were born and there's nothing I can technically do about that." Faith continues. "So one day, this dude shows up to town claiming he's the world's baddest bad."

"Klaus." Jeremy supplies.

"Reality check. He's not." Faith scoffs.

Elena's eyes go wide in absolute wonder.

"He doesn't even make the list of the worst recorded." Fred adds.

"There's a list?" Alaric asks suddenly more interested in the conversation.

"Many." Fred whispers.

"Right." Faith waves them off, placing her hand on her hip. "The thing about Klaus, he was right about one thing. Your blood is the key to unlocking the hybrid race."

"A vampire and werewolf sharing one vessel." Fred explains in a monotone voice.

"I know what a fucking hybrid is!" Elena snaps.

"Yeah, but I'm thinking that you don't how important they are!" Faith retorts.

"Important?" Stefan asks cautiously. He doesn't like the direction of this conversation. They never went in this deep with him earlier.

"The best way to explain this is one day there's going to come in time where every supernatural creature on this earth is going to have to choose a side." Fred replies.

"And we don't want the hybrids on the other side of an already rough snitch." Faith explains. "So that means, you need protecting, because we're not about to give The First Evil anymore open invitations to run this world."

"The First Evil?" Alaric mouths at Stefan in confusion, but both of them are blank on the subject.

"Wait, back up guys." Jeremy announces. "Klaus is stuck at the bottom of the ocean with nearly a ton of steel holding him down."

"You guys are a hoot and a half." Faith comments mockingly. "Do you even know what a Hellmouth is? Because I'm headed back to one!"

"Bottom line is your blood is special." Fred snaps. "A doppelgänger is a rarity and it gets worse now that you're an easy target - out in the open like this. People will always be after your blood." Fred adds.

"When did it become public knowledge what I am?" Elena asks instantly, alarmed.

"You don't just die and come back to life without alerting anyone. Everyone knows who you are." Fred answers quickly with a knowing stare.

"So, basically, you're saying that Elena's blood can sire hybrids and Klaus isn't the only threat?" Alaric assess slowly.

"Pretty much." Fred nods.

"And that we don't really click with hybrids when it comes to the Big Fight." Faith remarks, crossing her arms.

"Okay." Elena replies calmly taking this all in. "Then what do you want with Damon?"

"Yeah… about that…" Fred replies uncomfortably.

"He's not supposed to be human." Faith answers. "He's supposed to be a vampire when the Big Day comes."

"They want to reverse the spell, Elena." Jeremy whispers quietly.

"What?" Elena huffs. "You can't do that! You can't take this away from him!"

Faith shoots her an intimidating look.

"Stefan… come on… this is Damon." Elena asserts turning to him.

Stefan looks absolutely shattered by everything and can barely think at the moment.

"Maybe it's just me, but I still don't get the whole Damon and Elena connection with the world ending thing." Jeremy interrupts them.

"Damon needs to be alive to protect Elena, doesn't he?" Alaric turns to Fred.

Fred nods in affirmation.

"I'll protect her. I can protect her. Just leave Damon alone." Stefan retorts in a sharp tone.

"Seriously?" Faith replies incredulously. "It doesn't work that way. Even if we wanted to, it's not like we can just send someone here to be her permanent bodyguard."

"Why not?" Elena asks trying to get her emotions in check.

"Pain. Death. Apocalypse. This is very real. It's written very plainly." Fred replies. "The prophecy states that'll it be this particular union.."

"I thought you didn't know it was going to be Damon?" Stefan asks alarmed.

"We knew it'd be between her and a vampire she loves." Faith clarifies.

"She loves me too." Stefan blurts out.

"I mean, you do, don't you?" He whispers to Elena.

"Stefan." Elena gasps. "You know I'll always love you…"

"But not the same way you love Damon. You love him. You do. I can tell." Stefan deduces.

"So, the mirror…" Elena begins awkwardly.

"Found your soulmate and turned him human at the same time." Fred explains what she's been wondering this whole time.

"Soulmate?" Jeremy asked Elena.

"The mirror was supposed to find my soulmate. Like a compass. Pretty… silly… right?"

"Yeah, real silly Elena." Alaric comments sarcastically. "How did Damon takes the news?" He asks curiously.

Elena blushes, but doesn't have a chance to reply.

"Seriously, we've been on this for like hours. We found the doppelgänger and the vampire that loves her." Faith says. "And now I'm beat."

"Yeah." Fred agrees and groans. "Besides I've still got to hit deep research mode on how to turn him back without killing him."

"You guys don't know how to turn him back?" Elena asks relived.

"Don't worry." Faith smiles. "We're pretty good at our jobs. So just don't go anywhere and we won't have a problem."

Elena isn't sure how to reply as she tries to process all of the events.

"We'll narrow it down and be back by Midnight tomorrow." Fred adds, she shoots a glance at Faith and the girls walk off to the front hallway.

"I'm gonna offer them a ride, maybe find out some more…" Alaric relays to Stefan.

"I'm coming too." Jeremy moves to his side. "You've gotta drop me off and I'll call Bonnie from home and we'll see if she has any ideas."

"Good idea." Elena nods.

"I'm staying here." She adds as an afterthought.

The siblings exchange quick hugs before parting, leaving Elena and Stefan in the parlor room alone.

"So… soulmate, huh?" Stefan breaks the silence awkwardly.

Elena rolls her eyes, not really caring to talk about her feelings about Damon. She cares more about saving his life. "Stefan, you have to stop them. You can't let them turn him back."

"Elena, it's not that easy." He retorts.

"Then make it easy."

Stefan looks uneasy before replying. "She's stronger than me, ok? Faith is stronger than me. She's a vampire slayer!"

"But she's human?"

"Elena… no… I can't just kill her to make this problem go away."

Elena's fists ball up. "Then find someone who can or I will." She threatens before marching upstairs to check on Damon.

* * *

><p><em>AN: Woo Hoo, there's a bunch of stuff for my DE fans out there. I get asked whether I like Damon human more (a lot actually?), but it's not true. I love any kind of Damon.__:) Also, I just finished reading the Hunger Games, omfg. Anyone else a fan? **BE GOOD & REVIEW!**_


	7. Alone With Me, Setting Time So Burn On

**CHAPTER 12: I think we're alone now, the beating of your heart is the only sound.**

**W**hen Elena enters Damon's room, she finds him to be heavily asleep. As she tip toes in the room, she remembers that he doesn't have enhanced hearing anymore and there's a less likely chance of her waking him up.

For awhile she just paces around his room trying to form the right words to tell him the bad news. She can't come up with a way to say that this has all been one big misunderstanding. It's just not fair. He deserves this. There's a reason he got another chance at humanity. She wants this for him so bad.

After two hours pass, her bones have worn heavy from the long and eventful day and she decides to call it a night herself. Before she crosses the threshold to leave the room and sleep in her usual room, she decides to stay with him instead.

How bad of an idea could it be, she thinks to herself as she undresses down to her underwear and simple white tank. As delicately as possible, she turns the cover to join Damon in bed and blushes when she notices that he's only in boxers himself.

Not too long before dawn, Damon wakes her up, mumbling into hair about not wanting to leave such a beautiful dream. She squeezes his torso trying to wake him up in a soft manner, before realizing that he is already awake. He's probably confused, Elena thinks, biting her lip.

Before a word leaves her lips, Damon kisses her, but backs away instantly realizing that she's not the Elena from his dreams. She tastes too good to be just a dream.

"What?" He asks alarmed sitting up, embarrassed. His right palm pushing down on his raging morning wood.

"Damon, breathe. You're going to pass out again!" Elena exclaims panicked.

"Breathe?" Damon repeats and it suddenly becomes even harder for him to breathe.

Elena starts blowing air in and out in a dramatic manner, reminding him how to breathe properly.

When he finally calms down, he looks awestruck. "I'm alive. That really happened and you're in my bed. How did that happen? I don't remember that happening!"

"Nothing happened, Damon!" Elena expresses smiling. "I was just tired last night… that's all. I fell asleep here."

"You fell asleep? Here. With me?" Damon repeats stammering. He fucking hates that he's stammering and he doesn't remember the last time he's dealt with anxiety. This sucks.

Elena nods shyly.

"Why? But. I. You don't sleep with me." He is nearly shouting at her in horror.

"I can leave if you want." Elena swallows hard in shame.

"No!" He shouts louder. "I just… mind filling me in?"

"I didn't think you'd mind?" She replies meekly.

"Mind?" He scoffs deeply, reminding her more of the Damon that she's known for so long.

"I mean." Elena takes a deep breath before confessing. "I like you. I mean. I love you."

Damon's mouth opens and closes.

"What?" He asks as if he hadn't just heard her.

"Damon. I love you." She assures her. "Do you… don't you love me…"

"You're not making sense right now. Nothing is making sense right now." He looks like he's about to have a heartache.

"What's wrong?" She asks placing a hand on his shoulder, but she won't look at him. "I thought you'd be happy. I thought this is what you wanted."

He doesn't reply.

"Say anything, please." She shakes him a little.

"No, you don't." Damon grumbles. "You don't love me, you're just mixed up because of what happened to me."

"Damon!" Elena jumps out of bed and straddles his lap. She's fuming mad by his lack of reaction. Though the comforter is separating them from having skin to skin contact, this is still an intimate predicament for them to be in. They both blush a little. Damon feels like a teenage boy and pleads in his head for her not to wiggle at all or they're going to have a much bigger problem.

"I love you." She repeats, placing her hands around his neck.

Damon shakes his head.

"Why don't you believe me?"

"Because it's not real. Now get off me."

"No." She refuses. "Why don't you think this is real?"

"I don't know what's gotten into you. But nothing's changed. Just because I'm human that doesn't mean you can just be this way."

"What are you talking about?" She's so close to slapping him by now.

"I can't be who you want me to be. I'm still just me."

"How many times do I have to tell you that I like you just the way you are?" She growls.

"Sorry, if I find that a little hard to believe. I did just wake up human!" He shouts in her face.

So she just complete loses it and kisses him roughly trying to prove her point.

"No, Elena." He tries to avoid her, tries to get her off him.

"Yes, Damon." She counters in between kisses and keeps kissing him. She isn't going to stop until he gets it, no matter what.

"I can't do this with you." He begs, but she just keeps kissing him.

Then as her lips go lower, he falls completely apart and gives in to her. After all, he's loved her for years and he's just a man.

It's closer to noon now and Elena is still holed up with Damon in bed. They're both sweaty and chuckling under the covers. He wipes his forehead, completely spent yet filled with energy from the experience of being with her finally.

"Not to be a buzzkil or anything, but where's Stefan?" Damon asks curiously.

"I don't know." Elena dismisses. "Around."

"And he knows you've been in my room this entire time…"

"Yes…" She rolls her eyes dramatically.

"So, does this mean… " Damon's voice breaks a little as he tries to gather himself. "Are you my girlfriend? I mean, do you want to be my girlfriend? Ugh." He buries his face in the pillow, leaving only one blue eye out to be peeking at her, waiting for an answer. He actually doesn't remember the last time he asked a girl to go steady with him.

"Duh." Elena replies flippantly.

Damon calms down now and raises a brow in her direction, yet still muffled by the pillow.

"I was going to ask you to be my date to homecoming yesterday at the bar." Elena admits with a girly smile.

Damon laughs hard, finally taking his head out of the pillow. Yup, he's definitely making fun of her and she's perfectly okay with that. "Homecoming, huh? They have that in college?"

"Wow, it has been awhile for you!" She jokes.

Damon shakes his head before bringing her back in his arms, he's even happier than he was then the last time he was human.

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 13: We're living on a set time.<strong>

**E**ventually and reluctantly the new couple takes separate showers, gets dressed to see where everyone is at. Walking into Stefan's bedroom, they encounter Stefan and Faith in a heated argument.

"Dude! He has to remain a vampire because it's his destiny to protect her. If he's human, he won't be strong enough to save her." Faith declares and punches the wall nearest to her, nearly cracking it.

"I can save her!" Stefan retorts back.

"You know it doesn't work that way." Faith says shaking her head, but stop arguing once seeing Damon and Elena lingering in the doorway.

"Protect you from what?" Damon demands.

"It's… complicated." Elena says looking down at the floor.

"When is it not?" He replies incredulously.

"We'll let you guys talk." Stefan announces turning to Faith and they both make way to leave the bedroom.

"Thanks Stefan." Elena mutters and catches her breath trying to decide how to break the news to Damon.

"You deserve to be human. Don't worry about me. The world isn't going to end." Elena promises at the end of her longwinded speech.

"You don't know that." Damon replies aggravated.

"Damon, you could die." She whispers tearing up. "For good this time. None of this is for certain."

Damon looks torn about what to do. "And what about us?"

"What about us?" Elena asks baffled.

"If I turn back…"

"You're not going to!"

"If I turn back, will we…"

"Damon, didn't you hear what I said earlier? I love you." She assures him with concerned eyes and hugs him.

After a moment, Damon parts from Elena. "I should make myself useful. With Bonnie or whatever. Didn't you say Jeremy told her?"

"Probably." Elena nods.

"Coming?" Damon asks.

"I'll meet up with you later." Elena says uncomfortably. "There's a - thing - I have to check on. I need to stay here for a bit."

"Okay. You stay here then, with your 'thing'." Damon replies warily, not sure what to say to his new girlfriend. He doesn't know how to deal with the new delicate situation. He quickly pecks her on the lips before leaving her in Stefan's bedroom.

Elena takes a deep breath and plops down on Stefan's bed. There's too much going on for her to even take into consideration that's she's randomly sprawling on his bed.

Elena doesn't get time to reflect because Fred comes along and knocks on the open door, walking into the bedroom.

"I know you love him… but…"

"You don't know anything!" Elena shouts at her, sitting up from the bed and walks up to her.

"You don't know anything about me. You don't know anything about him - or - us." Elena continues.

"Look I cam here because…"

"You're keeping tabs on me."

"No." Fred states firmly. "I came here to tell you that even though there's a prophecy about you and Damon, that doesn't mean you can't win this."

"What are you saying? Are you saying he can stay human?" Elena asks anxiously.

"I'm saying I'm not the damsel in distress type and I don't think you are either. So if you want Damon, then you'll have to fight."

"Fight a slayer." Elena sneers.

"Are you crazy?" Fred replies. "I mean, it's okay if you are… I was crazy once, like you."

"I'm not crazy." Elena snaps. "What do you mean fight? Who do I have to fight?"

"Not who." Fred corrects. "These prophecies always have loopholes. Fight the prophecy, find the loophole. That's your only way."

"You haven't found one." Elena deduces.

Fred shakes her head.

"Why are you even here if you're not going to help?" Elena grumbles and storms out of the boarding house without saying a word to anyone.

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER: 14: You're only gonna turn me out, as I burn, you'll burn out.<strong>

"I can't help you find my brother." Stefan says to Faith as they continue their argument in the backyard.

"I don't know what your big plan is, but you can't take me." Faith paces up and down the grass in front of him. "No one can take me."

"I don't want to take you." Stefan mutters. "But I can't let you touch my brother."

"So you're not just a little bit mad that the girl you both love picked him over you and now he's suddenly human and they get to live happily ever after?"

"This doesn't have anything to do with Elena." Stefan sighs in aggravation. "This is about what I did to him."

"What did you do to him?" Faith perks up at the juicy details.

"I made him turn." Stefan confessed.

"Fuck dude. You sired your own brother?"

"No." Stefan sakes his head. "No, but I made him stay this way for my own selfish reasons. I didn't want to be alone."

"Look, save me the pity party. I had a horrible childhood too." She rolls her eyes. "Somehow I got through it."

"You're not very nice are you."

"Says the predator."

"We both know that you're the real killer between the two of us." Stefan replies darkly.

"You're not wrong." Faith answers loftily, looking away from him. "Vampire. Slayer. Dead vampire."

"But you're not going to kill Damon? Or Me."

"I'm still kinda shaky about you." Faith admits honestly.

"Why's that… exactly?"

"You know why… Ripper." Faith says with a shit-eating grin and walks away, leaving behind a dumbfounded Stefan.

He's so screwed. Screwed doesn't even cover it.

.

.

.

"When has Damon not been there for us in the past four years?" Elena demands over the phone to Stefan as she drives around town.

"What do you suggest?" Stefan asks. "You know, besides killing Faith."

"Me. I want you to kill me."

"What?"

"Damn it, Stefan. I want you to turn me." She bites out.

"I can't." He chokes.

"Yes, you can." She urges him.

"You never wanted this life. I can't do that to you. I won't do that to you. I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"Stefan, I'm asking you."

"And I'm saying no."

"Stefan, it's the only way."

"We'll find another way."

"We won't and you know it." Elena demands. "This is Damon!"

"You think I don't know that? You think I wouldn't do anything to save him? I thought you that about me now, but I guess not." Stefan growls over the line.

"Stefan I didn't mean it like that. I mean, I don't want him to die. I can't let him die."

"He's not going to die-die. He's just going to go back to being a vampire. It'll be okay, Elena."

"There's no guarantee, Stefan. You don't know what Fred said to me. She said there are loopholes in prophecies… there are always loopholes… look, Stefan, I have to go."

She hangs up the phone before Stefan can figure out where she is.

After a few more turns, Elena finds herself in front of her childhood home and decides to park the car and go in. As she walks upstairs and sheds her clothes to take a shower, she looks at herself in the mirror and she swears to herself that she'll find a way to keep Damon human even it means killing herself. Deep down in the furthest place in her heart, she knows it's the right thing to do. She can't allow the reversal spell to happen at Midnight, she just knows it's not going to go well. There's no way that group of people are ready to perform a spell of this magnitude - more so if Bonnie agrees to not do it.

* * *

><p><strong>One more part to this which I'll post this week. Thanks for all your reviews. Be Good &amp; Review!<strong>


	8. In Flames But This Isn't In The End

**Chapter 15: I set fire to the rain and I threw us into the flames.**

**B**ack at the boarding house, Alaric, Jeremy and Fred are buried in books trying to research any ideas on the hybrid curse or Damon's burst of humanity. It's been a hopeless case. Alaric and Jeremy have already been down the hybrid route before and know everything about it that there is to know. There's no way to break it permanently.

A sound breaks their concentration and Alaric realizes that it's his cell phone from across the room that's vibrating in his book bag.

A few seconds later, Alaric's eyes are completely wide as he listens to Elena on the phone. She confesses that she's decided to turn into a vampire and asks him to protect Damon if she can't get back to the boarding house in time. She's talking so fast that she doesn't give him a chance to yell at her and just like that, she's off the phone. He calls her back, but her phone isn't on anymore. She doesn't want to be found, at least not yet.

"How the hell did she even get this idea?" Alaric demands angrily at everyone in the room. A book goes flying past him as he throws it in frustration.

"Me." Fred stands up from his seat. "I'm partly responsible. I told her to Fuck Destiny."

"You had no right to suggest her to this." Alaric is fuming. He still feels responsible for Elena, even if they don't see each other as much anymore.

"I didn't tell her to turn into a vampire. I told her to find a loophole to the prophecy. I guess she figured that if she's a vampire, she won't be able to activate hybrids anymore."

"Is that true?" Jeremy asks worried.

Fred nods quickly in agreement. "Vampires are impure. It's now impossible for her blood to be magically enhanced to serve as a catalyst."

Jeremy sighs in relief, knowing his sister's turning wasn't for nothing.

"Is she going to be okay?" Alaric asks. "I swear, if she's not, I'm going to kill Caroline!"

"How do you know it was Caroline that turned her?" Fred asks interested by his remark. She hasn't met the blond the vampire, but she was briefed on her before coming into town.

"We weren't lying when we said we didn't know any other vampires." Alaric shakes his head. "Stefan wouldn't do this. Ever."

"She'll be fine." Jeremy replies having complete faith in his sister.

"Where's Damon? Has anyone told him? Is he with Elena?" Fred asks the room with a worried look.

"Shit, I have to tell him!" Jeremy answers. "He should still be with Bonnie!" He quickly grabs his cell and calls her, pleading that she'll pick up right away before anything else goes down for no reason.

After getting into nearly a million head on collisions from his reckless driving from Bonnie's house, Damon storms inside the old Gilbert house trying to locate Caroline after hearing the terrible news.

Caroline zooms over to him instantly.

"She locked herself in her bedroom." Caroline explains. "It's not safe for you to be around her, but you would know that…"

Rage fills Damon as he tackles Caroline. He can't believe it's true, it's really true, Elena is officially a vampire. How wasn't he around to stop this?

"Damon, stop, get off me." Caroline orders, slamming him into the wall. She's completely thrown by how weak he is. "I didn't do this on purpose. Get that through your head! No one even bothered to fill me in! It's like hello, you're human! When did that happen?"

"What? So you're saying you just happened to tap a vein for her because you were feeling like it today?" Damon crosses his arms. "How could you turn her? Why?"

"Because I was trying to save her life!" Caroline exclaims angrily, trying to explain her side of the story. She isn't the enemy in this situation. She didn't want this life for her best friend either.

"Oh, no…" Damon gives her an understanding look. "What did she do? What did Elena do? Tell me what she did!"

"She called me in hysterics saying someone broke into her house. Played it off real well, made it sound like it was really happening. It's not like I stopped to wonder why she hadn't called Stefan or you for help instead of me. I just came over right away."

Damon nods, listening intently.

Caroline rubs her face before looking back up at him. "So I get here and I find her in her bedroom, and there's blood. There's blood everywhere. I don't know how she did it, but God, it was awful. I didn't know what to do, I was freaked out."

Tears are forming in Damon's eyes as he pictures the gruesome scene that Caroline is describing.

"So.., of course, I gave her my blood. But that's all she wanted from me apparently. It all happened so fast. I had to leave to get more bandages, some pain pills, but when I came back to the room…. I found her outside of her window. Neck broken. She jumped out of the fucking window! Who the fuck does that?" Caroline frowns deeply. "It wasn't until much later that I realized that Elena set me up."

"She obviously knew I'd never turn her if she had just asked." Caroline pouts. "But I don't get it? Why would she would she do this? She never wanted to be a vampire. Trust me, we've talked about this before… I would know."

"She did it to save me." Damon states shell-shocked. He's close to catatonic. It's by far the most amazing thing anyone has ever done for him and it's difficult to accept that she took such a risk for him. He's going to have a hard time coping with the fact that he'll never hear her heart again.

"What are you talking about? What happened to you, Damon?" Caroline demands, really sick and tired of being kept in the dark. She's not always around anymore, but damn, a vampire gaining his humanity back is pretty big news to miss out on.

By some miracle, Damon manages to calm down and begins to tell the blond what happened two days ago with Elena and about the two out of towners in Mystic Falls.

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 16: I don't know what this is, but it's not the end - it's only the start.<strong>

Just outside of town, Stefan is sitting on the edge of a cliff. It's the same cliff he took Elena the last time he thought would be the last day of her life as a human.

Based on the rustling noises behind him, he knows there's a threat behind him, but he can't bring himself to care. His former love who didn't want to spend eternity with him had just decided that his brother was worth that commitment. That had to sting. True they haven't been a couple for a long time now, but Stefan can't help the depression that's bringing him down. He just has to get out of town. He won't be able to face seeing Elena as a vampire, the wound is too fresh. Maybe sometime in the future he'll return to Mystic Falls, but not now.

"Hey." Faith greets, coming up to him, revealing she was the noise he heard earlier.

"Hey." Stefan greets coolly, taking a swig of his beer. "How are you doing?"

"Oh, you know me... five by five. Can I get some of that?"

Stefan shrugs and passes it to her.

"Ugh. I never liked these much." Faith sneers looking down at the label in disgust.

"Then don't drink it." He shrugs.

"So."

"So, now that you found me, are you going to kill me?" Stefan figures that's the only reason she's still in town, unfinished business or whatever. Yet he doesn't bother running away or fighting, instead he takes another long swig from the bottle.

"I might've been sad about it, you know?" Faith admits.

"What?" Stefan looks at her disbelieving.

"I've been where you are before." She admits.

"And where's that?" Stefan retorts playing along.

"Directionless."

"Directionless? That's what I am?"

"By my observation.., yeah, dude." She answers in a sincere voice that makes him consider not snapping at her.

"Please, do you think I'm stupid?" She allows. "I knew you were faking it. Everything."

Stefan looks surprised by that knowledge, so his reputation has preceded him after all of this time.

"What can I say? I'm the world's best actor." She smirks. "So you really figured that I didn't know you were a Ripper? Your offhanded reaction after hearing about Angelus kinda sealed the deal too."

"You are going to kill me, aren't you?"

"No, but I can do you fast now if that's what you really want."

"Then what do you want? Why are you here?"

"I'd like to see you grow a pair."

"Excuse me?" Stefan retorts getting pissed off.

"That's the spirit!" She exclaims patting him on the back. She's not in the least intimidated by his eyes darkening.

"Look, the way I see it- back in the day, you used to be this badass right?"

Stefan raises a brow. "I'm not that person anymore."

"You're not much of anything anymore." Faith remarks harshly. "Come on, you're taking the fun out of it."

"Fun out of what?"

"Being a superbeing!" Faith answers like it's the most obvious conclusion in the world. "You've been around for awhile and damn, you're going to be around a hell of a lot longer than me, and this is how you want to spend the rest of your life?"

"Oh, right… Wise One- how do you suggest I spend my life then?"

"Not sitting on your ass." She smirks, feeling pretty good about herself. "You've got a lot of advantages that other people don't, so I suggest you do something with them- if you know what I'm saying. We can always use the help."

"You want me in the Big Fight?"

"More or less." She answers. "Why not? Got something better to do?"

Stefan doesn't reply and instead thinks deeply about her suggestion.

"You know where to find me." Faith concludes. "Just so you know, you're not that bad, kinda hot actually. I got off from fighting the other day with you. Not that I'd, you're the last person I'd…" She chuckles.

"Thanks, I guess." Stefan says as a goodbye.

"No problem." Faith chuckles. "Now I'm the second Slayer in the world that sponsors vampires." She says to herself, very amused.

.

.

.

Meanwhile back at the motel, Alaric is still a little smitten with Fred, so he's hanging out with her even though everything's been sorted out with world ending business. He can't stop staring at her as he watches her pack. She's just too adorable. And smart, he likes that especially. "I'm sorry that I snapped at you- back at the boarding house."

"It's ok. I understand. You love Elena."

"Like a daughter." He adds.

"Right." She looks up at him warily, a little uncomfortable. She hadn't assumed he had a different relationship with the girl nearly ten years his junior, but now he's making her wonder.

"So where are you and Faith going next?"

"Faith and I?" Fred begins to laugh. "I'm not going anywhere else with that fugitive bitch."

"What?"

"Oops, I probably shouldn't have said that…" She says to herself. "She's not that bad. Not really..."

While Alaric is amused that she's talking to herself, he's still curious about her next destination. He can't help his interest in her.

"We don't actually work together." Fred explains. "We just know the same people. That type of thing."

"People? There are more of you? More like you?"

"There aren't any other girls in the world like me. I'm capable of a lot of things." She deadpans.

"What I meant to say… are there other people out there that save the the world and fight the good fight?"

"That's so sweet and a tad condescending." Fred begins to laugh. "Yeah, there's more of 'us', there's your average recreational demon hunters and then there's the more serious stuff like Watchers or united covens against Evil doers."

"What's a Watcher?" Alaric asks with a curious expression.

"Something you'd be pretty good at I'd reckon to say. Well, if you ever visit the Hellmouth, just uh, get in touch with Faith. She'll do you good… I think."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Where will you be?"

"Los Angeles." She answers succinctly.

"There's evil to fight there?" He asks.

She confirms with a nod.

"Big?" He questions raising a brow.

"Biggest." She states with a sigh and finishes zipping up her carry on. "… I really should get going now."

"Right." Alaric nods walking up to her, towering over her with his height. "It was really nice to meet you."

"It was nice to meet you too… Ric." She blushes deeply as his gaze lands on her lips.

**THE END**

* * *

><p><em>Thanks everyone for joining me on my first crossover story. It was an interesting experience and I actually have a lot of ideas for Stefan &amp; Faith stories, dark ones with lots of smut, but who knows if I'll write one? I just posted a bunch of VERY HOT wallpapers and icons of Stefan and Faith at badboysarebest (dot) livejournal (dot) com ... enjoy. <strong>Be Good &amp; Review!<strong> xoxo_


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